what is the difference in wires?

[hifitommy]

dj-

"Personally I cant hear the difference"

as you havent listed your equipment, we cant know if it is capable of distinguishing between wires.

its not all about high frequencies, its about imaging differences, dynamics across the audible range of frequencies, tonal coloration, and other things that cannot be measured or that measurements havent been devised to reveal.

if you never are able to hear these differences, you will likely save a lot of time, trouble, and money.

[hermanv]

The analogy that seems to hold up best is the wine taster. The good ones can tell the age and type of wood cask in which the wine was "finished", they can tell in what part of the world the grapes were grown due to miniscule differences in soil composition. Is this a gift from natures or is it learned? As near as I can tell most of the tasters believe it is learned ability. It's not that their taste senses are intrinsically better, it's because they care a lot and trained for years.

So was my experience with cables. Initially I heard no differences between my Monster 1000 interconnects and the "free" ones that came with newly purchased equipment. Eventually I learned to hear more (and discovered that the Monster 1000's were damn poor)

A fair warning, I moved from my good 'ol Sansui receiver to Denon separates and then to the more exotic equipment. My original $500 system became $2,000 and finally ended up nearer to $20,000. I could easily spend more except that I do believe in return on the dollar and with my limited income I am already well past proportionate, realistic costs

Happy listening.

[pammyJ]

I have just acquired two previously awesome compenents.

Pioneers SX-7
Signet SL-260/II speakers

Just wanted to know if they are compatible with each other. I bought 12g copper cables from (Monoprice) to hook up. Still confused with the bi-wire system as I am a noob, but wanted to test them out for a old system.

I love my dad's old amp, even though it is only 60w, I hope it can power these speakers...

[hermanv]

There is no reason to worry about compatibility and 60 Watts will do a decent job of powering the speakers.

I do not know how efficient the Signet SL-260/II speakers are. If they are typical (89 dBSPL per watt), they will not provide room shaking sound while perfectly acceptable to all but the hard rock aficionado.

[Rikki]

its not all about high frequencies, its about imaging differences, dynamics across the audible range of frequencies, tonal coloration, and other things that cannot be measured or that measurements havent been devised to reveal.

The reason I don't buy this theory is because if you snuck into someone's house in the middle of the night and changed their speaker wire/ICs to just cheap clean copper wire without telling them (assume the cheap wires are the same color/packaging etc. as the original wires- so the difference isn't visual). Are you saying they would notice a difference ? I really don't think so.

If you changed their speakers or processor for sure they would hear a difference - but not the wire.

Or the truely blind test where maybe one day I changed them without telling you and maybe one day I changed them back. I'm not going to tell you when/if I changed them. Are you really going to realize the difference day to day ? And the one day when you say you hear a difference - but I didn't even change them that day - wouldn't that blow the whole scam ?

dj-
as you havent listed your equipment, we cant know if it is capable of distinguishing between wires.

Above reply applies to any system priced $100 --> $1 million

[Hyfi]

Above reply applies to any system priced $100 --> $1 million

Not sure I agree with this one. $100 components can't even playback the source properly let alone be able to convey differences in cables.

You may want to rethink your price point, but I still won't agree.

If the same exact music is played at the same volume on a warmed up system each day, many people will quickly be able to tell that it sounds different.

[Rikki]

If the same exact music is played at the same volume on a warmed up system each day, many people will quickly be able to tell that it sounds different.

That I will agree with. Copper wire (along with the other components) can make music sound different - based on if it's hot or cold. The nicer the system the more you will probably notice it.

But my point is no one is improving copper wire. Copper is copper. Ergo, wire is wire.

Only God (the real God not Eric Clapton) could improve copper. And even He would have to call it something else for copyright reasons.

[JohnMichael]

That I will agree with. Copper wire (along with the other components) can make music sound different - based on if it's hot or cold. The nicer the system the more you will probably notice it.

But my point is no one is improving copper wire. Copper is copper. Ergo, wire is wire.

Only God (the real God not Eric Clapton) could improve copper. And even He would have to call it something else for copyright reasons.

Unless of course your cables are made from silver or aluminum or other materials that have been used. Is copper not refined in the manufacturing process so man does have to improve upon the original.

[E-Stat]

But my point is no one is improving copper wire.

Actually, many companies are improving the conductors using alloys of either aluminum or silver. But, I digress. Let's look at one of two other variables: geometry. Look at the metrics table at the bottom of this link. Do you notice any differences with capacitance or inductance using pretty much the same copper wire, but with different geometries?

Hint: Cables are part of the system and interact with amplification stages and speaker crossovers. Cables with a lower effective dielectric constant (product of capacitance and inductance) fare better. Here are a few representative values.

For those who think that zip cord is *perfect*, take a look at the distortion added when used in the real world as evidenced with this test.

I just have to smile at those with ZERO exposure to high performance cables (or systems for that matter) and conclude they cannot possibly make a difference using simplistic criteria.

[JohnMichael]

I just have to smile at those with ZERO exposure to high performance cables (or systems for that matter) and conclude they cannot possibly make a difference using simplistic criteria.

I could not agree more. As I have mentioned before some of us hear differences in cables and others do not. Yes my life would be easier if I did not hear differences but I do. My system is better for all the experimentation I have done. I also have enough copper here to have to worry about copper thieves.